the Top 10 Death Metal Albums of 2016

There seemed to be more death metal coming out than anything though black metal was hot on it's heels. I need my death metal to be dark and hateful, this was a dark and hateful year so here are some of the albums that provided the best sound track to that. If you want to hear some of these guys then look to the review links posted along this countdown of 2016's top death metal albums. 10- Death Cult- "Beasts of Faith" The debut from the Swiss band, comes with a strong sense of influence from early death metal in the raw pummeling they dish out. The vocals are manically croaked rather than just growled. This places a sometimes emotionally charged aspect to them. It's dark and for death metal of this kind a reasonable sense of songwriting and dynamics. http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/08/deathcult-beasts-of-faith_16.html 9-Wayfarer -"Old Souls" his band from Colorado creates some dark brooding metal makes you forget they are from the States. Primarily they strike me as being a blackened death metal band with the vocals leaning them more in the death metal direction. When the pace picks up a little toward the end the shadowy feeling reinforces the looming black metal influence, but over all there is just a great mood and atmosphere coating this death metal which gives your ears the impression of black metal. http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/10/wayfarer-old-souls.html

8-Krypts-"Remnants of Expansion" en at it's most cheese filled Finnish metal has a knack for darkness. There is not any cheese to be found on  the new one from this band from Finland. They dig up  all of the elements I need from death metal and puts them together in one nasty package. I like the painful ache of their throb that almost borders on doom. When they speed up into the faster double bass sections it makes more sense as we have been shown the contrast of what this sounds like when it is not coming at us with this speed to we can full appreciate the shift. http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/10/krypts-remnants-of-expansion.html

7-Master- "An Epiphany of Hate" In need of some old school classic 90's sounding death metal, I jumped at the chance to give this album a shot , even though back in their hey day, I never really listened to these guys. The first thought that hit me is they sound like a faster version of Obituary. This is in part due to the gnarly but decipherable growl of bassist and sole founding member Paul Speckmann. Speckmann comes from a time when no matter how heavy you are trying to be at the end of the day it becomes all about songs . This is the case even when his growl takes on a more garbled sound that is an dynamic effect in and of itself. http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/01/master-epiphany-of-hate.html

6-Be'Lakor- "Vessels" Right from the onset of the Australian death metal band's fourth album it is clear something is different here. All too often the term melodic death metal means something is going to go very wrong and we are going to be more concerned with clean singing and shredding than kicking your ass. I would not say this band is really concerned with kicking ass. They have the synths and the clean guitar tones. Which in and of themselves if placed in the right hands can be valuable tools to create metal with. The vocals are a low growl that has been dipped in effects, which is fine by me it gives it a little bit of a Morbid Angel edge. http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/07/belakor-vessels.html

5-Asphyx- "Incoming Death" This Dutch death metal band released their first full length in 1991 and have been storming the gates with their very manic take on the genre ever since. Their lead growler did some time in Pestilence, which gives them an edge over being just another death metal band from the 90s. There is more of dry snarling rasp to his weathered voice.  He is also the sole long standing member of the band. These guys are upholding a legacy of a band that hailed from  an era where writing songs came before just being heavy. This album shows great maturation as a band due to it's restraint. When it comes to death metal this might not not always be dark enough for me, but for straight up no frills death metal from the 90s then this is your jam. http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/09/asphyx-incoming-death.html

4-Ketzer- "Starless" This German band's third full length is well thought out from every angle. Well produced with out being gaudy. The vocals are the most black metal element to the  album, which is otherwise melodic death metal at it's heart. It is really on a song by song basis as to what shade of darkness these guys are bringing. The first song is oddly upbeat from the onset and they waste no time to defy what is expected from any genre. This is followed by "When Milk Runs Dry' that finds the band coming closer to a more Blackened Death Metal sound , but their is something about these riffs  carry a majestic air that death metal doesn't encompass. On "Godface" The punk influence on thrash can also be felt here, making this almost feel more like black n roll. http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/02/black-metal-history-month-ketzer.html

3-Withered- "Grief Relic"

 Speaking of black metal, these guys used to think of themselves as black metal and got on black metal torus , but they are really death metal.They embrace this on their first album for Seasons of Mist.their return after a six year hiatus roars up from the depths with a cavernous blasting. Very dense and heavy, the intensity it hits you with from the onset begs a question we ask most bands that are this heavy after the opening song plows us over ...O.k what else can you do? Write Songs? Yes they can and do with a sense of darkness and sonic heft to them.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/05/withered-grief-relic.html br />

1-Lesbian- "Hallucinogenesis"

 Former members of the Accused formed this band back in 2007. Perhaps back then they might have been doom, but now they are proggy death metal. The vocals are varied and a good blend of sung vocals and growls. The opener has almost a black metal like throb to it. I like the fact that these guys are really dark. In some ways it makes me think of what might have happened if Acid Bath collided with Cynic. There are space like keyboard sounds zooming out of the corners of the song not inhabited by guitar solos.s I really like the weird myriad of genres that combine in the most twisted way possible. Sure it's proggy , but never awkward and puts being mean and heavy before showing off their chops. chops.http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/08/lesbian-hallucinogenesis.html

What is Good Death Metal?

A recent review of the band Altarage ....see the link below ...

.http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/07/altarage-nihl.html
,
brought the question up of what is good  death metal . Personally I don't believe in things like good or bad when it comes to moral choices and think of things in terms of being either effective or in-effective. How music is something that can be defined and measured, there are keys to be played in and time signatures to keep. Sonically what you are doing works in unison or it is noise. What keeps music from being noise ? Melodies and hooks, syncopation and dynamics. Without these you might as well be farting into a distortion pedal.If you think farting into a distortion pedal is music, then it's time for me to answer the question ...what is good death metal, since you do not know.

What would make we qualified to answer this question you ask? The answer is in 1988 I bought the album "Leprosy" by the band Death. 28 years ago.Ask yourself what albums you bought in 1988? Were you alive in 1988? Were you listening to the Sesame Street theme song? Maybe the first metal album you bought was in 1998, perhaps it was "God Hates us all" ? or "Garage Inc". The first metal album I bought when it came out was "Powerslave", sure my grand parents bought it for me and I was drawn in by Eddie, but it clarified for me that Kiss, Motley Crue and some of the other bands I was listening to as a child were not metal. They were good rock bands with a hard rock edge. So back to death metal, after buying "Leprosy" I proceeded to buy albums by Morbid Angel, Deicide, Unleashed, Cancer, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse,Carcass,Sepultura, Acheron, Nocturnus, Entombed,Incantation and At the Gates. So hearing these albums when they were released, set the bar pretty high for what is good death-metal. What makes these band's better than others, aside from the fact they already did what many band's today can simply imitate?

Well here are the factors mentioned above in action. Melody... this is where most bands fail because they put brutality to the forefront and miss the point you are supposed to be making music and writing songs, here is an album that proves you can have your bloody cake and eat it ...the key is balance and since the vocals are pounding at you along with the drums then the guitars have to carry the burden.

 

 Hooks ...this doesn't mean that you have to compromise heaviness and sell out it means you have to put thought into your song writing and write songs that bring the listener back to them time and time again, it's great you are into the new Anal Blasphemy, but are you going to be listening to it over twenty years later will it stand the test of time like this album...



 Syncopation...this doesn't mean you have to lock in on every punch like a stompy hard-core band, but locking in a playing as a relentless machine to create something that is memorable, here is where your drummer has to be a fucking monster and on point for every beat, if not then go play a sloppy style of music like punk.

 

 Dynamics ...Another place many bands miss the mark in the sake of being heavy. If you play fast all the time it loses the effect, in order to make me feel like you are playing fast I need to here other tempos...this album should explain the rest.



 But it's not fair to say if an album came out after 96 it's not good, well good death metal still comes out , the new Howls of Ebb is an example and several of other came out last year that cane be found on a list I made here...
 http://www.nocleansinging.com/2015/12/29/listmania-2015-wil-cifers-top-10-death-metal-albums-of-2015/

 life is too short to listen to bad metal

The Top 10 Metal albums of 2016...so far

Ok, this one took longer than our pop/rock list. One or two of these bands could have crossed over into that list, but they have enough balls to be here. These are ranked by what I have listened to the most weighed against the impact of the album and how it scored here at the blog. But it could have been a master piece , but if it didn't inspire me to listen to it a ton then an album I listened to more would be better. Keeping up? Then lets move on to the best Metal albums that the year has offered us so far. If you want to hear more there is a link to each full review with media.

10- Metal Church - "XI"

 This one made it over to the iPod and got more listens than Ihsahn whose album certainly should get an honorable mention here. It's perhaps not had the staying power that some of the other albums ranked higher have. They came closer to the top of the heap than many of their peers who have come back this year to make it feel more like 1988 than 2016.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/03/metal-church-xi.html

9- Abbath- st

Immortal has been slugging it out longer than Queensryche over who owns the rights to their name leading guitarist and front man Abbath Doom Occulta decided to just release this album under his own name enlisting Creature aka Kevin Foley who is Benighted's drummer to pound along with Gorgoroth bassist King ov Hell. So a Immortal / Gorgoroth super group is what we are looking at here. It is though the material on this album are the songs that were written as the follow up to the 2009 full-length "All Shall Fall". It is currently not in rotation on my iPod, but I will give it another shot as the album captures this kind of aggression well and the time I did spend with it colored my black heart impressed.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/01/abbath-st.html

8- Howls of Ebb - "Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows"

 This project out of San Francisco is bringing some of the wonderment back to death metal. Death metal all too often defaults to re-hashing what Incantation and Morbid Angel have already done. Little time is wasted digging into the meat of the metal on this one. The helter skelter sense of groove and trippy atmosphere that make this band so awesome are all intact.Overall this albums brings to life everything I could want from them. More progressive than just death metal loaded up on a ton of drugs. The bass playing is some of death metal's best this side of Cynic, who lets face it are off in the land of elves with Rush at this point in time. The experimentation is tempered with aggression, though it's not just a monochrome brutality. http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/03/howls-of-ebb-cursus-impasse-pendlomic.html

7- Eight Bells - "Landless"

 Things have changed for this band since "Captain's Daughter". I felt they had potential on that one and here they have fully realized. The drumming shows vast improvement as they open with the doomy "Hating" . The title track finds the band taking on more of a trippy post- metal ambiance to a  riff that feels like it spirals down before ebbing down into a softer sung section.The vocal melodies are stronger on this album as well and more love and care went into the song writing. Any doubts as to the metallic nature of this band is put to rest by the blast beat section this song hangs on with the vocals taking on more of a harsher growl when it slows into more of a punk beat.The song does drone me out a little though I got sucked into the black hole of the inner webs reading about the whole Phil Anselmo thing just when they hit the section of minimalist ambiance.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/01/eight-bells-landless.html

6-Voivod - "Post Society"

 Voivod has always been light years ahead of their time. Since "Target Earth" the band has locked into a sound that takes the classic tones from "Dimension Hatross " and pushes it forward in a modern production. This ep is the quality of both songwriting and production as "Target Earth" in fact the arrangements might be even more progressive,  like the surreal breakdown on the title track that kicks the ep off. They have always been able to shift in a very organic manner from one movement to the next . What amazes me more upon hearing this is how true they are to their legacy even though half of the original members are not on this recording. Chewy and Rocky did comprise the live band on their last pass through the states with Napalm Death and both really do justice to the Voivod legacy.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/01/voivod-post-society.html

5- Anthrax-"For All the Kings"

 Anthrax used to be one of my favorite bands and to this day "Among the Living " is without a doubt one of the best metal albums ever with "Spreading the Disease" not too far behind. I hung tough with the band for the first six albums, even liking Jon Bush's first album. Then we grew apart.  "Worship Music"  saw the return of singer Joey Belladonna, but I never gave it a shot. Age might have helped Anthrax here , because with age Belladonna's voice is lower than even on "Persistence of Time", but it gives him more aggression, which might have helped on albums like the almost too happy "State of Euphoria". There is younger blood injected in the band as Jonathan Donais from Shadows Fall is now in the band.They exceeded my expectation and this album is still in rotation.

http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/01/anthrax-for-all-kings.html

4- Graves At Sea- "The Curse That is "

 I had been waiting for these guys to drop a full length as the splits and eps were great, but wanted something more to sink my doom hungry jaws into. Doom begs to be questioned here right from the eleven minute title track that opens the album.  It's an odd evolution that includes the bigger production value this album has. It finds them thundering into your ears with something more akin to a stoner rock version of "Through Sliver and Blood" era Neurosis. Some evolution an be expected considering the line-up changes that have yo-yoed the band about. The vocals are still mean in their ample grit coated screams. The guitar has warmed up a bit. Perhaps it is the time they took in the studio to perfect their tone versus previous releases which have had a rawer, angrier sound.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/03/graves-at-sea-curse-that-is.html

3- Katatonia- "the Fall of Hearts"
 The gloomy Swedes were almost sent to the pop rock list, but have enough metal on this to make here even though they have pretty much become a prog band at this point. The Opeth like cadence that builds the opener when the distortion is stomped on makes sense considering the acrobatics the guitars have already engaged in leading up to that point. "In Absentina" ear Porcupine Tree might also come to mind. This is not to say there is not plenty of the band's own DNA all over this song. Jonas' vocals are unmistakable.The album is very crisp from a production stand point, which lightens the shade of gray cast over these songs. Jonas doesn't have the same melancholic desperation fueling his vocals, yet he doesn't stray from his style.It's weird as it's not as dark as previous releases, but packs more of a punch.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/05/katatonia-fall-of-hearts.html

2-Nails- "You Will Never Be One of Us"

I have predicted 2016 as the year grind-core  and power-violence breaks through into the metal mainstream. What Weekend Nachos failed to deliver is being jack hammered into your face by this band.  Their guitar tone is as nasty as you can get and still play riffs that hold together actual songs. Even then when I used the word songs here I am describing sharp bursts of anger. Grind-core has never been my forte, typically because of the genre's limited range of dynamic expression. Coloring with only the red crayon of anger can limit what you do, this band from Southern Los Angeles colors with this crayon so well, I know what I'm in for and can hold on for the jolting ride.The heaviest album on the list for sure.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/06/nails-you-will-never-be-one-of-us.html

1-Tombs-"All Empires Fall"

 What happens on Tombs new album should not come as a surprise considering how they have evolved with each album. The last album might not have been as dark as the previous, but Mike Hill and company continue to evolve. With the inclusion of Fade Kainer into the fold on "All Empires Fall" it made me think the industrial influence that has lurking under the surface would rise like Godzilla. This is not the case. They make it clear the metal isn't going anywhere. They kick the fucking door down with a neck crushing riff.The only thing wrong with this release is the fact it's an EP rather than a full length, because it leaves me still wanting more.
 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2016/03/tombs-all-empires-fall.html

Howls of Ebb : "Cursus Impasse: The Pendlomic Vows"

Here's an album I have been waiting for. This project out of San Francisco is bringing some of the wonderment back to death metal. Death metal all too often defaults to re-hashing what Incantation and Morbid Angel have already done.  Little time is wasted digging into the meat of the metal on this one. The helter skelter sense of groove and trippy atmosphere that make this band so awesome are all  intact.The double bass hammers harder here beneath the rubbery bass lineS. There is aggression to this, but  not conveyed in the manner you expect from death metal. The guitar tone is one thing that sets these guys apart from their peers.Not as saturated in distortion, the cleaner tone  has a more organic warmth. They toy with the syncopated riff in "Cabals of Molder" with effected sounds whirling around the the mix. It's not secret that darkness is an essential element of heaviness to me. This factors into what makes "Maat Mons' Fume" really stand out to me. They have more of a proggy sludge feel than death metal, however when the time comes to spazz out the solo section leading into a burst of blast gets crazy enough to belong on a Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. This is all done with much more of a deadly seriousness.

"7 Ascetic Cinders..." reaches a place where the level of  the experimentation reaches surreal n more abstract proportion that gives the song a feeling of intangibility.  The chaos stirred up is one of high prowess, though the song writing element. "Gaunt Vertigo " finds them  throwing down the gauntlet to challenge the listener. The rasp of the vocals becomes  more intelligible for "Subliminal Lock" which hits a groove that is like a cracked out version of "Where the Slime Live".  This is not to say they are aping the Tampa death metal pioneers here, but rather coloring with a similar shade of sinister. They linger on atmospheric noise going into the final song "the Apocryphalic Wick". It creeps into a rasped chant before everything falls in around it and builds up momentum from there. This song works off of a much simpler premise than the rest of the album really alternating between the two sections .

Overall this albums brings to life everything I could want from them. More progressive than just death metal loaded up on a ton of drugs. The bass playing is some of death metal's best this side of Cynic, who lets face it are off in the land of elves with Rush at this point in time. The experimentation is tempered with aggression, though it's not just a monochrome brutality. The playing is dialed up past eleven on this one, but as a collection of songs I'll round it up to a 9.5 and see how it sits with me. Some songs are more obtuse than others, but it's safe to say these guys have cemented their own sound at this point and how weird and wonderful it is . This beast will be unleashed by I Void Hanger Records April 15th.

The Top 10 Death Metal Albums of 2015

While death metal doesn't get as much air time with me, I am no stranger to the genre having bought my first death metal album "Leprosy" in 1988. From there Morbid Angel and Deicide would become my favorite death metal bands  with Incantation, Obituary, Cancer, Nocturnus and Unleashed picking up the slack. As with all things the darker the better so that while factor in as we leave no grave unturned and dig into the best of 2015. This list is going to touch on every aspect of the genre sometimes getting so melodic I had to question if they were death metal and then give the album another listen to ease my doubts. There was not one sub-genre of genre that dominated this year though I tend to lean more toward the doomier more blackened side, we still have more traditional, tech and experimental death metal bands gave good showings. So here are my top ten death metal albums, ranked in according to which one got the most rotation on my iPod.Links to full reviews which include streams posted with each entry.




10 - Vehemence -"Forward Without Motion"

 Certainly could have stood to have listened to this one more, but I suppose I'm not always in need of this much shredding mixed in with your death metal. It was guitar players album for sure. The drummer was no slouch either but the focus in more on the sweep arpeggios. It is pretty melodic in the post- Spiritual Healing or Heartwork way. As this one progresses it becomes impressively melodic and not in the cheesy Dark Tranquility way. It can be hard to take a more conventional approach to death metal and make it interesting and these guys made more than listenable and topped out with outstanding shred guitar.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/10/vehemence-forward-without-motion.html

9 - Grave: "Out of Respect For the Dead"

 It's the eleventh album from the Swedish Death Metal vets. Along with Entombed they helped hone a sound that bands have been trying to emulate ever since.There is a lot of groove to this album which help keep it's dark and grisly vibe moving forward. This is pretty much everything you could want from this era of old school death metal . It's an impressive display of power, that comes with seasoned songwriting.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/09/grave-out-of-respect-for-dead.html

8 - Pyrrhon -"Growth Without End"

 The album title must be this band's motto as the New York based band headed in a more intense yet mathematical direction.The songs were short spastic burst not as herky jerky as power-violence or grind core. At times this came across like a more death metal version of what Converge does, but with a meth driven ADD. Where most of the so called deathcore bands attempt something similar to this, Pyrrhon gets it right and understands the beauty in creating ugliness. The production of the album is as in your face as the music that was recorded, not too noisy or lo-fi, but balancing out the layers like a Bosch painting.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/09/pyrrhon-growth-without-end.html

7 - Aevangelist: "Enthrall to the Void of Bliss"

This didn't hit me like "Writhes in the Murk " did as it's not as dense and jazz like. They shed some of the black metal elements to you deeper into the land of profane nightmares from a more death metal perspective. The drag riffs out of the murk, proving they are making metal and not just hell-spawned noise-scapes. The vocals stay at bubbling gurgle, like lava being poured down a drain pipe.They have brought experimentation and metal meet at a dark crossroads. This is like heavy machinery and should not be operated while on drugs at risk to your own sanity.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/09/aevangelist-enthrall-to-void-of-bliss.html

6 -Desolate Shrine- "the Heart of the Netherworld"

 This is an album of dark death where the guitars lay their melodies over a fairly brutal battering. The production on this album is how death metal should sound. It's not too , but it's not under produced to the point of sounding like they are playing in your crawlspace. Many death metal bands blown their wad after the first song, and hit me with everything they have. This leaves me waiting around to see what else they can do which is usually more of the same. This album made me forget that I was waiting around for as it evident the onset and didn't let up from there. It really grew on me with each listen.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/05/desolate-shrine-heart-of-netherworld.html

5 - No Trust: "the Cycle"

 Despite having a slight black metal torment to the mid-range throat scraping of the vocals, these guys play death metal that attacks as a very keen machine. The compact songs , run around four minutes, getting in and getting the job done without losing you in the sprawl. This is not straight forward death metal, it retains enough of the raw aggression to give the tightly coiled progressive metal influence more bite, always finding ways to work in catchy grooves. Tastefully finding ways to conforms more to what today's headbangers would want from death metal, the band doesn't owe much to classic bands like Morbid Angel, but slight touches of Slayer can be detected. Keep your ears open to what the future holds for this band.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/07/no-trust-cycle.html

4 -Howls of Ebb -"the Marrow Veil"

 I hear too many bands in today's metal that play it way to safe , so Howls of Ebb are welcomed relief. They are not afraid of wildly deviating from the masses . I am not a fan of twenty minute songs, but these guys are able to occupy the space. They kick in with a bizarre psychedelic fury and ebb down to linger in the awkward silence of whispers. This makes the silence as confrontational as their louder moments in a manner similar to bands like Mr. Bungle.There is a chance that when this album is over you'll find your self wondering what the hell you listened to, depending upon how stoned you are. It will take a few more listens and a half dozen more bong hits to come to a conclusion. Stone cold sober I concludeD that I need more of this in my life , though would prefer it in smaller more song like doses and less like sprawling soundtracks. But if they do not choose to temper their wild creative streak with the restraint, then I'll take that as well.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/07/howls-of-ebb-marrow-veil.html

3 -Nightfell - "Darkness Evermore"

 The bar was raised pretty high as their debut album"the Living Ever Mourn" really killed it. The same woefully melodic throb still flows through the veins of this beast. The guitars are masterfully layered and production wise this album sounds even better than their first. The arrangements are crafted in a way that other bands should take note as it is so organic and fluid you almost don't notice the transitions. The song writing has stepped up to the challenge. I would otherwise balk at opening an album with a ten minute song, but they know how to make every second count. They gallop into the darkened landscapes with classic metal bravado, once again delivering the goods.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/08/nightfell-darkness-evermore.html

 

2 - Archgoat - "the Apocalyptic Triumphator"

 This Finnish band has been spreading the unholy word since the early nineties. They have left a trail of splits and eps in their wake but this is only the band's third full length...so it's kind of a big deal.While this band's mission statement and role in the occult community is more in line with black metal, but intention and attitude alone doesn't keep this album from being death metal as the vocals are growled in a manner below guttural like Angel Slayer is funneling a sewer from from the bowels of hell down his throat. At best it's blackened death metal, but the band's influences are pre-dark throne a time when death metal was the heaviest thing going and Deicide and Acheron were the most satanic shows in town. Never numbing you out with blast beats, they raised the bar for metal bands in 2015. This album proved it was possible to be insanely heavy with out forsaking songwriting. This album Has both the brutality and attention to detail I want from my metal death, black or otherwise.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/01/archgoatthe-apocalyptic-triumphator.html

1 - Tribulation - the Children of the Night Was a little torn as to if this album even belonged here, until I went back and listened to the album and "Music From the Other " sealed the deal. While I liked the band's last album, but found them much more fascinating of a creature on stage when I saw them open for Watain, so I am hoping some of those more progressive and wandering qualities have carried over from the road and right from the first few chords of the opener it seems like they have. There is an almost Opeth like lushness to the sound. They don't use the traditional metal crunch, instead just going for an organic tone that they are playing loudly. The vocals are more intelligible than the previous album. When they dive deeper into the darkness answering the question what would it have sounded like if DeepPurple had written the soundtrack to the Exorcist. This is another step forward for the band that continues to grow with every album, they blend the more classic metal elements in with their more ethereal colors with ease, as they are not afraid to push the bounds of what death metal can be.

 http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2015/03/tribulation-children-of-night.html

Howls of Ebb: "the Marrow Veil"

As I have been reviewing the year in metal thus far I have come to the conclusion today's metal playing it too safe bands like Howls of Ebb are welcomed relief as they are not afraid to not sounds like just another band that wants to be Incantation.  With only three songs it's hard to call this an album and not an ep, but my rule of thumb is anything longer than "Reign In Blood" is an album. I am not a fan of twenty minute songs, but these guys are able to occupy the space. They kick in with a more psychedelic fury that ebbs down at the three minute mark. They linger in the awkward silence of whispers making the silence as confrontational as a band like Mr. Bungle might. It takes a good three minutes for them to kick back into the metal. They don't blast off into but rather take an evil sounding creeping groove that gradually stomps back into place. The mix is as weird as the music they are crafting. They employ some of the typical metal tools like chugging, but it is turned upside down and inside when given their interpretation.

 After some of the shitty deathcore I  heard last week this is a welcome relief. The song gathers drive and momentum, but layer it in spaghetti western ambiance, like if Ennio Morricone was scoring a movie about an acid trip in hell. At the twelve and a half minute mark it collapses into whispering again this time the whispers come from the bass.They churn back into more of their surreal take on death metal. The vocals are a dry mid range rasp that is at the forefront of this album. After this dissonant epic the two and a half minute "Dusks Tyrannical Lore"serves as more of an interlude between the two longer works. "Iron Laurels, Woven In Rust" is a few steps closer to a more conventional metal direction. When the song gathers steam it sounds like a swarm of insects about to attack. The dizzying sense of motion makes this song come across as being heavier than a hundred down-tuned crab squatting death core bands. The guitar solos twist the fret boards like John Zorn mistreats his sax.When the song takes a breather around the ten minute mark it builds the song back up in a chaotic whirlwind. There is a chance that when this album is over you might find your self wondering what the hell you just heard, depending upon how stoned you are. It will take a few more listens and a half dozen more bong hits to come to a conclusion. However, stone cold sober I did come to conclude that I need more of this though hopefully in smaller more song like doses and less like sprawling soundtracks. This is a follow up to their debut full length so , by the time the next real album is released we can hope they will have tempered their wild creative streak with the restraint to serve to the song. I'll give this a 9.